What Google says about video content and why you need a strategy.

Often seen as being too costly with minimal return-on-investment, video is by far one of the most underutilised weapons in a business’ marketing arsenal. The truth is that video is the most highly consumed digital content around and businesses without a video marketing strategy are missing out.

Here are the facts:

Companies that use video on their website experience 41% more traffic than those who don’t (SmallBizTrends) and including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80% (Unbounce). However, there is still an unwillingness to include video in strategy. I think that it all comes down to content.

So many times I have seen organisations dismiss video because it’s too hard or they struggle for ideas. Luckily, like all things, Google has the answer: A Google survey found that users predominantly use YouTube to help them solve a problem or learn something new. With YouTube being the number one video platform on the internet, it is imperative that businesses prioritise this type of content into their video strategy.

Types of “How-To”

In video marketing, there are three tried and true forms of video content: Testimonials, Tutorials, and Demonstrations. “How-to” falls under the tutorial category, which can be further broken down into two types: “Process” and “Tips”.

Process videos are your general step-by-step guide that helps users solve a problem that they may experience. In this type of video, the order of the steps are important (just like a cooking recipe) and as such, it’s a good idea to add either transcripts or captions during playback.

“Tips” videos are helpful to users in a more generalised way than that of “Process” videos. Using the recipe example again, a tip video maybe something along the lines of:
“Five reasons why your cake isn’t rising” or “How to buy the right type of cake tin”. Here, the order is not as important.

Elements of a good “How To”

Beyond a good concept, there are a few more things that you’ll need to consider before you can start filming.

Your video needs to be inspirational. The whole aim, of course, is to achieve your business objectives and the way to do this is by leaving your viewer feeling like they can do anything.

Two words of warning, however:
1. Make it feasible. There’s no point in creating a how-to video if most of your audience is unable to achieve the solution.
2. Consider the legal implications of publishing a how-to video. For example, you wouldn’t want to post a video on “How to Do Your Own Electrical Work” if your target audience is the general population; very risky.